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Breaking new auto research ground

The University of Waterloo, McMaster University, the University of Windsor and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) at Oshawa represent the largest concentration of academic programs dedicated to automotive research of any province in Canada.

Engineering Prof. John McPhee (middle) reviews the wiring configuration on an electric Toyota RAV4 with some of his graduate student researchers in the University of Waterloo’s Student Design Centre. Waterloo conducts research with all five vehicle manufacturers in Ontario. (NSERC / COURTESY, UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO)

With student team leader Patrick Ellsworth, GM of Canada's Corporate VP Ken Kelzer and Executive-Director Brandon Vivian examine vehicle modifications at the Student Design Centre that were made by the University of Waterloo’s alternative fuels team. Waterloo has eight automotive student teams based there. (COURTESY, GENERAL MOTORS OF CANADA)

In recent years, McMaster University created MacAUTO, which is an umbrella organization for the university’s numerous automotive-related research institutes and centres that work with industry, government and academic partners. This is one of Mac's labs. (MIKE LALICH / COURTESY, McMASTER UNIVERSITY)

Midnight Sun solar car team members work on their vehicle inside the University of Waterloo Student Design Centre while other teams fine tune their competition vehicles. Waterloo has eight automotive student teams working in the centre.
(UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO)

This is a view inside the University of Waterloo’s Anechoic Chamber, a $10-million soundproof isolation laboratory that develops next-generation intelligent wireless communications. The chamber is one of five automotive labs opened at Waterloo in the last four years.
(UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO)

By Perry LefkoSpecial to the Star

Fri., Jan. 22, 2016

Automotive research is no longer restricted to the manufacturers. Apple and Google are two examples of high-tech companies getting involved and universities have their hands in it, too.

When it comes to post-secondary automotive research programs, there are four universities in Ontario that are collectively earning good grades.

The University of Waterloo, McMaster University, the University of Windsor and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) at Oshawa represent the largest concentration of academic programs dedicated to automotive research of any province in Canada.

In fact, the four schools represent several of the best programs overall in North America and, some might say, globally.

Collectively, they are doing very innovative and robust work in the ever-changing landscape of automotive technology.

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“The level of R&D conducted or managed by these great institutions is a testament to the importance and need for continued innovation in the auto sector,” says Azhar Mohammad, Partner and Executive Director of Canadian Motor Speedway, the planned motorsport/entertainment project on 820 acres in Fort Erie.

“Despite this great presence in Ontario, there is still a lot of testing being sent to the U.S., which presents the need to bolster Ontario's own testing infrastructure beyond test benches and prototype development,” Mohammad adds.

Windsor and UOIT, which joined the ranks of Canadian universities in 2002, both offer degrees in automotive engineering. McMaster includes automotive technology in its Bachelor of Technology program, which it is planning to expand in the next three years.

Waterloo has just doubled the size of its Mechatronics Engineering program, where students can emphasize automotive through electives, co-op work placements and student teams. Waterloo has 125 professors engaged in automotive research, the most of any university-based program in Canada; McMaster is second with more than 75.

So how do you differentiate Ontario’s four university automotive research programs from another?

“The material that has to be covered is more or less the same because the students have to learn engine fundamentals, but it’s at the research level that the universities differentiate,” says Dr. Mehrdad Saif, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Windsor.

All of the schools have student teams that participate annually in various North American automotive competitions. Last May, a Waterloo team placed first among 15 competitors from across North America, setting an all-time record score in the annual Dartmouth Formula Hybrid Competition at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, using a prototype that included lighter materials and a more powerful battery system. McMaster placed second.

Each of the schools receives significant research funding from industry (both cash and in-kind contributions), as well as from Ottawa and Queen’s Park. Federal programs include the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the National Research Council (NRC). Provincially, the Ontario Research Fund and the Ontario Centres of Excellence support university based automotive research.

UOIT is noted for its General Motors of Canada Automotive Centre of Excellence – ACE – which opened in 2011 and was supported by $67.3 million in provincial funding. ACE includes a five chamber, integrated research and training facility that allows vehicles to be tested in varying degrees of temperature — ranging from -40C to +60 C — and on different simulated road conditions.

“These facilities are probably the biggest differentiator (from the other three universities) in terms of the capabilities it offers to do vehicle research and development in any climatic scenario, whether it be wind, rain or solar; along with a number of other capabilities to do simulations,” says Justin Gammage, Industry Liaison Manager at UOIT and formerly the Chief Scientist at GM Canada.

“It’s a very comprehensive full-scale automotive-testing facility.”

Windsor’s campus includes the Chrysler Canada Automotive Research and Development Centre (ARDC), which opened in 1996 with a $30 million investment — the first partnership of its kind in Canada — and now exceeds $600 million. ARDC is equipped with six road-test simulators and a range of research and development support facilities, including the Automotive Coatings Research Facility and the Automotive Lighting Research Facility.

“At any given time, you’ll find the faculty and students working with Chrysler people on various projects,” says Saif.

Canadian Motor Speedway (CMS) has entered into Memorandums of Understanding with Mac, Niagara College and UOIT for automotive design and research and development as part of it project. McMaster’s Faculty of Engineering will co-develop and manage CMS’s Innovation Park, a research and development facility for advanced studies and testing to support the global motorsport industry and Canada’s vast auto sector.

“This structure will create an ongoing source of revenue for our educational partners that will continue to fuel their ongoing innovation and research in addition to any government funding they already receive,” Mohammad says.

Collectively, Ontario has highly-respected researchers actively involved in numerous projects in the automotive industry, while their graduate student researchers learn automotive skills that will be in-demand by vehicle and parts manufacturers upon graduation. So the contributions to research by the companies are paying it forward, training graduate students for what could be many interesting hiring opportunities in years to come.

“The thing that sets Ontario apart is we have these four universities that are very complimentary to each other, are very engaged and willing to work with one another to advance automotive technology,” Gammage says.

“So you basically have a team of universities that all can draw on each other’s expertise and facilities to really make Ontario a leader in automotive research.”

Ross McKenzie, the Managing Director of the University of Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research, which goes by the acronym WATCAR, says the four universities are “collegial” in terms of the work they do.

“It’s a pretty finite group of folks who do automotive specific research in Canada and those are the four (anchor) institutions,” says McKenzie. “We put together the right set of professors who have the relevant competencies that the (automotive) company needs to solve the problem that’s before it.

“What we’ve seen since 2010 is that there is a greater willingness of the automotive sector to engage in collaborative research because they need highly specific competencies and want experts to either develop a precise solution of a larger problem or validate their idea. Companies today are more willing than they had been traditionally to engage with academia to get that done. In the past, they would have hired someone internally.”

The University of Waterloo has been engaged in automotive research for more than 50 years, but it was 13 years ago they established WATCAR, to promote its advanced research programs that further automotive innovation and competitiveness.

WATCAR is affiliated with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA), Electric Mobility Canada and the Intelligent Transportation Systems Society of Canada (ITS Canada). WARCAR is one of eight large-scale, industry-focused centres and institutes on campus.

McKenzie says the University of Waterloo focuses primarily on collaborative research with industry and doesn’t do a lot of “blue-sky” research, which is the science of research without a specific goal.

“At WATCAR, we don’t engage in any research that doesn’t have an industry partner at the door with a problem they want our assistance to solve,” McKenzie says.

“If a company has a challenge they need help to address, and we have the competency within our array of 125 professors, WatCAR matches them up. Then, together with the company, we do our best to solve the problem or help develop the next generation of whatever part or component they are working to improve.

“WATCAR was established to brand the University of Waterloo’s 31 automotive research competencies and our primary role is to facilitate collaborative research between industry and our professors. We specialize in active safety, automated driving, lightweighting and advanced powertrains.

“In terms of how research works (at Waterloo), a good example is in lightweighting. Let’s say you’re working for a car company and you want to light weight part of the vehicle’s chassis (frame) to help improve fuel economy. What we do is structural analysis — a crash-worthiness test.

“We’ll take the modified lightweight metal alloy you are considering to use on the chassis and press or stamp it into the required shape. Then we’ll mount it on a crash sled and drive it into a concrete wall, simulating a collision, to see how it reacts on impact. We validate and quantify the crash-worthiness of that new metal you want to use, making sure it does not compromise passenger safety.”

McMaster’s Bachelor of Engineering program teaches students about the design, operation and manufacturing of advanced combustion engines, hybrid cars and alternative fuel vehicles in addition to learning about cars of the future that will not require an engine, gasoline, steering wheel or exhaust.

“The philosophy behind it is that we were interested in engineers that not only know why, which is typically what the Bachelor of Engineering program will do for you, but also knows how,” says Dr. Mo Elbestawi, McMaster’s Vice-President, Research and International Affairs.

“Engineering is applied science, so it combines both the technical know-how with the hands-on experimental know-how. The automotive program is one of the most important programs in our Bachelor of Technology (department). We have a very strong research program.”

About seven years ago, McMaster created MacAUTO, which is an umbrella organization for the university’s numerous automotive-related research institutes and centres that work with industry, government and academic partners.

“Why did McMaster go this way? We protect our area of strengths and we build those strengths, which makes perfect sense,” Elbestawi says. “There are many people involved in this. Having a lot of faculty members in automotive leverages that.”

MacAUTO’s initiatives are valued at more than $100 million in programs and infrastructure. The research programs include testing of hybrid power systems, developing corrosion-resistant coatings, optimization of transportation and logistics systems, impact of pollution on the environment, creating software and simulation programs, and understanding visual attention and motion perception.

The focal point of research in vehicle transportation and electrification at the university is the 80,000 square-foot McMaster Automotive Resource Centre (MARC).

WINDSOR BOASTS EXCHANGE PROGRAM WITH U OF TURIN

While the University of Windsor is known for being the first in Canada to offer a degree in automotive engineering, it is also unique in terms of an exchange program it has with Politecnico di Torino (the Polytechnic University of Turin in Italy).

After a year of studying at their respective university, the students spend the second year at the other university. Upon completion, Mac students receive an international master’s degree in automotive engineering. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sponsors the program.

“The desire behind (the program) was to train an international automotive engineer so they have been exposed to different cultures, needs and so on,” says Mehrdad Saif, dean of the faculty of engineering at the University of Windsor. “The company’s interest is that they would have access to these students after they graduate. They like to be able to hire them if they wish; otherwise, a student can find jobs with other companies. But that has been quite a unique and interesting program.”

Sergio Marchionne, chairman/chief executive officer of Chrysler Group and CEO of Fiat, says: “In a world of rapid and continued change, we have an obligation to give our young people both the technical and cultural tools necessary for their education.

“The University of Windsor and Politecnico di Torino have much in common. Not only are they among the most prestigious scientific academic institutions in their respective countries, they have demonstrated an open mentality and created a vital and creative environment for education and learning.”

The program at Windsor has four categories: vehicle engineering, powertrain engineering, manufacturing and management process and virtual product engineering. Admission to the program is competitive. Students require an average of at least B+.

Students must meet all other requirements for admission to graduate studies with the engineering school. Successful applicants are elected by a committee through an interview.

In the first of the two-year program, the students are working on a research thesis that is defined and supported by Chrysler. At Politecnico di Torino, the Windsor students complete their master’s degree with an additional year of study and the full support of Fiat. The entire program is conducted in English.

The exchange program provides students with professional training and practical experience necessary to work in a competitive, global environment. Plus, they can live and study in two countries and work with two leading automotive companies. The program is designed to help the students take a leadership role in the automotive industry.

— PERRY LEFKO

This is freelance writer Perry Lefko’s first project for Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, email wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.

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